England’s World Cup Dreams: In Memoriam
It’s not coming home. Ultimately Croatia were too good when it mattered. England started quick and scored early, a brilliant strike from the brilliant Kieran Trippier, but Harry Kane missed a double chance later in the half and Jesse Lingard sliced one wide. A handful of set piece opportunities didn’t lead to anything and eventually a resilient Croatian side came back to dominate the second half, equalise through Ivan Perisic, and then win it in extra time. Mario Mandzukic with the decisive strike, slipping in behind John Stones to score.
England needed to strike again while they were on top. It’s easy to say now but that first half hour was their window. Once Croatia settled in and began controlling that midfield, as they were always expected to do, England retreated and settled in with a 1-0 lead. A dangerous lead. A lead which they couldn’t hold onto against Colombia and which they didn’t hold onto against Croatia.
But while it’s true that England let this one slip by not capitalising early on when it mattered, you can also say that they gave up too many chances too. Croatia had twice as many shots as the Three Lions. The momentum was all theirs late in the game, their superior experience showing through. They brought some serious pressure in that second half. It was here, in the semi-final, when those old concerns about this England squad came roaring back.
John Stones is an excellent defender, absolutely superb playing out from the back and a guy who organises the folks around him. But he’s vulnerable to the odd timid mistake and he had a couple here – none worse than with that winning goal. He’s still a young defender. So is Harry Maguire. Kyle Walker isn’t massively experienced as a centreback.
Same goes for Jordan Henderson who got thoroughly outplayed by Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric. No surprises there and Hendo’s had a good tournament but he’s not exactly Xabi Alonso as much as he tries… and boy does he try. No dramas whatsoever about the superb performances all tournament long from Jordan Pickford and Kieran Trippier but… Ashley Young? Fair play to him for maximising his international career but England can do better. They will do better next time. (Blame Jose Mourinho for buggering up Luke Shaw’s career).
England scored have 12 goals at this World Cup – with a third & fourth game to go – and nine of them have been from set pieces. That’s both amazing and damning. That Gareth Southgate has managed to make such a threat out of set pieces, owning the clichés about English football and turning them into a strength was pretty superb from him and his team (the long balls were there too, particularly late in this game, and weren’t up to much to be fair – one to work on for next time). But not being able to create much from open play was eventually the end of them.
The team camaraderie was unbelievable. For a nation that’s so often brought that club baggage into these tournaments, wearing the expectations of their country like a cross to bear, that’s kinda remarkable in itself. The mindset of this squad definitely helped them win that shootout. But they still went into the semi-final with four young attackers from three different clubs. That was obvious at times as Lingard, Alli and Sterling struggled to connect and combine. There were flashes but only flashes. Against a very strong Croatian team they needed more and Harry Kane simply couldn’t get into the game in the last half hour or so plus extra time.
Which is when you have to remember that this is the youngest team that England has ever sent to a major tournament. What’s more is that most of the younger players were in that starting XI. Lingard, Maguire, Kane, Pickford, Stones, Sterling, Alli and Rashford are all aged 25 or younger. This team is ahead of schedule. This team is going to remain a threat for tournaments to come. The draw worked out nicely for them and arguably they didn’t actually beat anyone they weren’t expected to beat but that’s a tough excuse to buy at a World Cup. Italy didn’t even qualify so don’t come at me with the ‘weak opposition’ excuses. England has lost to worse teams than Sweden before. England has lost to Sweden before.
And that’s the beauty of what they’ve achieved here. In shrugging off decades of negative psychic energy they’ve set their team up for a potentially golden era. That doesn’t necessarily mean winning trophies, there aren’t a lot of those to go around, and it might well prove that this tournament was the peak for this group of players, that they’ll never surpass what the 2018 crew managed. But it does mean that people can believe in this team again. And that other nations will respect them in a way that they probably haven’t in the recent past.
Hopefully the pain of getting so close doesn’t overshadow that perspective. England has had their golden generations in the past but there are several good reasons for why they never did much on the global stage. Which would take up several more articles to dig into.
But Gareth Southgate’s English team stand out against those sides because of how refreshingly likeable they are. Who saw that coming, an endearing English team!? You can tell that they love playing football together. You can tell that with more experience they’ll only get better. This wasn’t the polished product that went to Russia, save that one for another day. But it was pretty bloody fun while it lasted.
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